The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1887-03-12
HENRY WARD PIECHER.
DEATH March sn, 81, at age Of serentyJour

Any one who ever saw Lyman Beecher
In any public address, will recall his per.
son, not above medium height, his rather
stout body and its sturdy look, and the
energy Of his gesture when In imprisoned
address. He possessed strong will power
perseverance interchangeable, an intense
force Of conviction, an all, pervadlng ear
nestness and an unquesticned disingenu.
business and sincerity, He was charac
terri d also by tender feeling and intense
personal attachment. So great and pecu
liar was his love TO Dr. n w. Taylor, the
New Haven theologian, that he begged
that at death he might be laid by his side
His wife was a woman of great lowell
ness of spirit, of marvellous self.contro
and of inextinguishable devotion, model
In domestic duty.
Their children had the best possible
advantages in entering life; healthy bod
les, virtuous home, In communities OF
homogeneous character, highly intelli
gent, industrious, frugal, economical
moral and religious. The choice country
schools were taught by persons of high
and pure character, and of excellent
social position. In due season these
children had opportunity of further study
and instruction at the best academies
seminaries and colleges. One Of the
younger boys, Thomas X, was student
at Illinois College at Jacksonville, ant
was graduated lS43. Lyman Beecher wal
twice married and the father of twelve
children.
Henry Ward, born in 1918, was edu
Gated at Amherst, Mass, and theologicalll
at Lane Seminary, where his father wa'
at that time instructor. Brought into the
west, he received his first call TO labor a
Lawrenceburg, Ind. After two years he
went to indianapolis, then comparatively
small place. In either place his salary
was small and he was poor and helped his
wife much in the hardest household
drudgery and common work.
His mental vivacity and force brough
him into notice, and in lS47, ten years ir
Hoosierdom, he was called to Brooklyn
New York. His striking eccentricity
plainness, force and highly emotional ma
ture were hardly in keeping with the stale
and formal character and decOrum of the
eastern states. His own people hardly
knew how to get along with 1t. Eventually
the tide turned, and wholly In his favor
Confidence and affection grew together
The young, gay, jaunty and CHEEKY were
attracted in great numbers to the Plymouth
church. The preaching there was no
merely attractive but effective for religious
reformation and the beginnings of reli
gious life. Brooklyn then, and since cor
tinually, grew rapidly In wealth and popu
latien. But the congregations gathered tt
hear Beecher were twice as large as those
of other Protestant churches. Now tina
his means were increased, Beecher devot
ed himself to study and work. The grea
throngs of merchants then meeting II
New York to buy goods, all wanted to heal
him; and many did, and thereby greatly
added both to the numbers of hearers and
the reputation of the preacher. This large
constituency enlarged his liberty and aim
and gave him the mightiest and noblest in
SEPARATIONS. Plymouth church saw the rising
tide and spared no pains to make theiI
house of worship home for all, and
Welded an unreserved confidence and lead
ership to their minister.
1t was among Mr.. Beecher's endowments
to feel for the young; their needs in vie"
of the laws and demands of their nature
and then to believe that God made the
world for goou and presided over 1t In love
as his own father did, in his well-remem
bered home. The old fathers byword
Mater will caper" to the son, took the
form of conviction that there were lawful
amusements; and that GODS original plan
must have contemplated just such world
as we have, and race to be nurtured by
love, watched, guarded, instructed and edu-
Gated to become by choice moral nlial
dutiful towards God the Father, and fra
ternal towards man. He saw all this In the
Bible and let Calvinism go. Devoutly and
tenderly and with all his heart he reVe-
rerently took Jesus Christ as the worlds
light, hope, Savior, its example, an elder,
incorruptibe brother, divine, who "of
God is made unto US wisdom and right
eousness, and sanctitication and redemp-
ton"
Everything that hurt, damaged, deoaseo'
degraded or wronged man, he set himself
against-vice, oppression, tyrannies, intem-
perance and slaveholding!
1t was among his endowments to see the
coming day; to divine; to discern an issue
not far away He had
THE INSTINCT THAT COULD TELL
that God was on the field while yet invisi-
BILE. So he made dash and fight for free
dom, But with him advance, attack and
reform all were dominated by love of
man, and every man needing true vision
Al. r.